Anything is Fixable: Dylan_See's TJ Build Thread
- Thread starter Dylan_See_TJ
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I decided to put some stuff from the unit I tried to rebuild into the old one, and I’ve got the clutches in (fixed the backwards thrust washers under the rear drum and triple checked the clutch plate clearances). Gonna pop the pump back in and adjust the bands, then I can put the valve body back and button it up to put back in.
I ended up hybridizing the two transmissions. Old transmission, untouched from the annularies down, with the untouched old valve body and pump. I swapped out the burn clutches for the fresh ones from the rebuild, made sure the thrust washers were good, moved over a bunch of case and electrical connections, and buttoned it up with the pan swapped over from the rebuild and another new pan gasket. Input shaft spins fine, I made sure that the park rod actually engaged when I put it back in, and made sure it passed all the air tests. I think I had jumbled the snap rings and forgotten to check clearances in the clutch plates and that was part of the issue with the rebuild. I will see how it drives with the "old" one in there with what is essentially a partial rebuild and a new TC, and figure out a plan moving forward from there. If all the old problems are fixed, a full rebuild swap might prove unnecessary, but that remains to be seen. Fingers crossed, again.
Buttoned her up, topped her off… and park worked, every other gear was just drive. I figured it was the manual valve, so I dropped the skid plate, and the pan, and lo and behold, it was. Got the linkages fixed in the pan, buttoned her up, and road tested her. She works! Smoother shifts than before, no weird double up shift into three from two, I’ve got all gears, and no weird noises as far as I can tell. Time will tell if I need to pull the dipstick to RTV the grommet, and I’ll probably need to slightly adjust the throttle valve cable, and the shifter currently displays the wrong gear on the lever indicator, but I’m not looking this transmission horse in the mouth. Success! I think.
I have no idea what was up with it, probably something in the valve body or maybe the clutch packs or perhaps both. My frankentransmission is alive, so this one’s a win in my book.
Combining corpses in Frankenstein’s transmission lab
Did you yell "It's Alive!"
Very nice work. I'd quickly get lost in an auto tranny.
More like. "Finally! I don't have to take it apart again!"
At this point pretty much the only three things I haven't torn apart on this thing are the axles, the steering rack, and the engine itself. Not even so much as thinking about touching anything big for a while now unless I have to; I can finally get back to tinkering and doing actual mod mods instead of messing with a pile of clutch plates and sealing rings.
You said it. You were right. I took apart and cleaned the throttle body and its three sensors. Crank, but no start. I replaced all three sensors. She idles great; super excited for this weekend to finally drive it for real with the fresh transmission rebuild. Letting it idle to let the sensors and PCM jive with each other, and thick, sweet smoke starts billowing out of the tailpipe. I'm pretty sure I don't have the dud head casting, but either way, she's toast. I don't know if it was the new sensors, the giving it gas last night to try and have it hold an idle (kept dropping to 400 RPMS and dying cause it was getting choked out by the bad IACV), or something else, but my head gasket is definitely garbage. I'll have to gut the top end to get to the obviously ruined gasket. Trip is up in smoke, at least me driving, anyway. I'm running out of money, and out of time. I have one free weekend left all summer. If there's an opposite to the idiom about having a horseshoe up your ass, I have that.
I can’t help with the money aspect (unless you’re a freaking ROCKSTAR with Apache Kafka and/or C++, because I can turn that into money for you), but as far as time goes…. I do some of my finest work between 9pm and 2am. Weekends are usually shot with kids stuff, so it’s either work into the wee hours or stare at an immobile jeep.
Speaking of spare time… I may have found a market arbitrage in the form of broken down mid-aught LR3 Land Rovers. Going to look at one later this week. Asking $1k, needs maybe $100 in parts. If I ever find one with a blown transmission, they’ll be able to see my boner from outer space.
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